the latter reign inhabited for a short time by George Duke of Clarence, brother of the king, and the same whose death in the butt of malmsey in the Tower, has rendered his name and title familiar to all the readers of history. After his murder the palace reverted to the crown, but it was restored by Henry the Eighth to the unfortunate daughter of Clarence, Margaret Countess of Salisbury, who was beheaded in the Tower in her old age, for the crime of being mother to Cardinal Pole. The building was, after a long interval, purchased by the Drapers' Company, but has been long since pulled down.

26

CHAPTER II.

Doctors' Commons. - The Fleet Ditch. The Temple Gardens. Ancient and Modern Templars.

Somerset House and Waterloo Bridge. - Romance of Modern London. The Savoy Palace. Henry the Eighth's Tournament and Festival at Durham House. - The Adelphi.- Whitehall.

FTER passing the Southwark iron-bridge, completed in the year 1818, we arrive at Doctors' Commons,-famous as the residence of ecclesiastical lawyers, and the seat of the ecclesiastical judges. It was at one time in contemplation to have pulled down all the houses between the river and St. Paul's church at this spot, and to have thrown open that magnificent edifice to public view from the stream. the project had been carried into effect, the improvement to the banks of the Thames would have been great, and a beautiful prospect would have been obtained. But as the projectors, in answer to the "cui bono," of the

If

capitalists, had no other reply than "beauty," the project soon fell to the ground. It was found to be expensive, and not likely to be productive.

One cannot, however, help regretting that so fine a project was not carried into execution. The beautiful Cathedral is not at present to be seen from a favourable point of view in any part of London, either by land or water. The most favourable is from Blackfriars' Bridge.

Shall we linger to describe an edifice that all the world is acquainted with? Shall we di

late upon the glories of its architecture; the fame of the great statesmen, orators, patriots, and poets, whose monuments are within its walls? Shall we remind the passer-by of the fine thought to the memory of its great builder,

"Lector, si monumentum requiris, circumspice?

"

or expatiate upon things connected with the history of this edifice, that are familiar, or ought to be, to every Englishman? No; we will pass on with silent admiration, or perhaps, a reiteration of our regret that so magnificent a building, and so hallowed a site, should be shut from the sight, when at an expense, inconsiderable in comparison with the vastness of the improvement, a view might be obtained, worthy alike of this great capital, and of the finest Protestant church in the world.

Close adjoining to Blackfriars' bridge- the dirtiest of the tributaries of the Thames runs into the sovereign river-the Fleet-formerly called a river itself, but now and for ages past degraded to a ditch; covered over in all its course through London, as something too of fensive to be seen. Pope in his Dunciad has celebrated it in the following lines.

Fleet Ditch with disemboguing streams
Rolls the large tribute of dead dogs to Thames.
The king of dykes! than whom no sluice of mud
With deeper sable blots the silver flood.

At the time when Pope wrote, the ditch was open to the gaze of all the world, and it is said the corporation were so shamed by the verses, that they soon afterwards carried into effect the improvement, of arching it over and forming Fleet Market-the present Farringdon Street upon its site; a plan which had been for years in contemplation, but continually postponed upon one pretence or another.

A little further up the stream, to the west of Blackfriars' Bridge, stands the precinct of the White Friars, the ancient "Alsatia" of the thieves and debtors, and famous to most readers, from the graphic and entertaining description given of it by Sir Walter Scott. It is now chiefly inhabited by coal-merchants, and retains not one of its former privileges. We next arrive at a different scene. A plot of fresh green grass-an oasis of trees and verdure amid the wilderness of brick and mortar that encompass it on every side. The houses that form this pleasant square are high and regular, and have a solemn and sedate look, befitting the antiquity and historical sanctity of their site, and the grave character of the people that inhabit them. Here are the Temple Gardens, sacred to the Goddess of Strife. Their former occupants, the Knights Templars, were quar